Lamebrained schemes and losing horses, bankruptcy and busted limbs, showdowns with flat-nosed thugs and one perpetually stressed out spouse turn a dedicated horseman away from racing for fifteen years. Marriage over, kids grown, he looks again for the passion he lost. When Sumatra walks out of the Seattle mist and into the sales ring, he sees his chance and takes it.
In September 2005, this dominating, little black filly runs her heart out at Emerald Downs. The only female in a field of bigger, stronger colts, she wins leading wire to wire. This victory is a culmination of an odyssey Jay begins at Chicago’s Washington Park Race Track in 1969. Swept away by the glamour and excitement of Thoroughbred racing as a boy, Jay starts his career shoveling horse manure and works his way up the racing hierarchy from groom to exercise rider to stud manager to trainer. Without an official win, however, Jay cannot call himself a true horseman until the day Sumatra leads him into the winner’s circle.
The book is also the memoir of the short but sweet racing career of the spirited Sumatra whose struggles learning to race teach her trainer what winning is really about. Their adventure shows the reader that Thoroughbred racing today is just as exciting and fun as it was in the days of Seabiscuit and Secretariat.
More than a book, Stalking the Pace is an eBook enhanced with video. As you read of Sumatra’s racing experiences, you can watch the actual patrol films used by the racing stewards at Emerald Downs to police the races. It’s a whole new world of reading and seeing, right in the palm of your hand. Readers whose electronic devices do not have video capability can still see the clips by going to www.stalkingthepace.com.
